True Love '95 to be released on Steam on 2019-12-20

[adamstan]

Whoa, that came out of the left field.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1094640/True_Love_95/

It looks like FAKKU is going to release +18 version of True Love ~Jun'ai Monogatari~ on Steam.

(Since game is marked as +18 on Steam, you can't acces store page without logging in and having adult content enabled in your settings).

Edited December 11, 2019 by adamstan

[Infernoplex]

The girls in this game are grandmas by now. Who in their right mind will want to buy it in this day and age? This is a VN for museum or something.

[adamstan]

40 minutes ago, Infernoplex said:

The girls in this game are grandmas by now.

So at least they are safe from Steam's anti-loli banhammer

[GXOALMD]

Me: Ooh, I like the art.  Let's see what vndb says about it.

vndb: True Love's genre is considered to be a mixture of a dating sim and... *stops reading*

Me: It was time for Shuckle to leave. It had seen everything.

[adamstan]

Yeah, it's VN mixed with a big amount of dating-sim, with some annoying RNG mechanics that make getting some heroine events pretty tiresome. But it's quite short, and some of the heroines are IMO very nice, so still worth giving it a go. (if the price won't be absurdly high)

I think Mikae from this game is partially responsible for my soft spot for osananajimi heroines, since it was first VN I played back when I was 16 or 17 and didn't even know what VN was

With walkthrough, or another one (and a good bit of saving and reloading because of damned RNG) it is possible to "get" all (but one) heroines in single playthrough. The only mutually exclusive two are Mikae and Remi, so you need another save at branching point between those two.

Edited December 7, 2019 by adamstan

[Dreamysyu]

To be honest, this release does feel a bit random. Will it even be profitable for them? From what I understand, most current eroge players don't play games that old...

[adamstan]

I suppose the costs of it were close to none (maybe they are using Asenheims remake as a basis for this?), so maybe they don't worry too much? But yeah, it feels totally random.

I guess they always can get few $$ thanks to nostalgia. I'm going to buy it just to have "legit" version after all those years.

Edited December 7, 2019 by adamstan

[Freestyle80]

Why 

[Novel21]

16 minutes ago, Freestyle80 said:

Why 

Why what? 

[JoshB2084]

Am I only one love True Love? Anyway, I'm excited to reading it again, and reading clearly in HD..

[adamstan]

3 hours ago, JoshB2084 said:

Am I only one love True Love? Anyway, I'm excited to reading it again, and reading clearly in HD..

No, I have some fond memories of it too.

I wonder if they fixed the translation... But I'm a bit afraid it's just low-cost port.

Edited December 8, 2019 by adamstan

[ittaku]

Was my introduction to dating sims and then VNs. I played this about when it came out in '98. Still have very fond memories of it, and the heroines in it, but seriously why rerelease it? It should be in the public domain instead. If you haven't played it before, grab a walkthrough and play it through to see how it was done well back then.

The thing is, the game is freely available online I believe ~legally already at the asenheim project.

[adamstan]

6 minutes ago, ittaku said:

The thing is, the game is freely available online I believe legally already at the asenheim project:

Asenheim's site is unofficial, their releases are in the grey area (since most of the games are obviously abandonware). The only fully legal Asenheim's remakes are those available officially from JAST's site.

So I guess after this new official rerelease they might be made to take down True Love from their site (or not, since probably nobody cares anyway).

Edited December 9, 2019 by adamstan

[ittaku]

Just now, adamstan said:

Asenheim's site is unofficial, their releases are in the grey area (since games are obviously abandonware). The only completely legal Asenheim's remakes are those available from JAST's site - this made them official.

So I guess after this new official rerelease they might be made to take down True Love from their site (or not, since probably nobody cares anyway).

That makes sense. I've modified my post to remove the link to it then as well. Still how much are they charging for this on steam? It should be a $1 release.

[adamstan]

3 minutes ago, ittaku said:

Still how much are they charging for this on steam?

Looks like the price isn't known yet. We'll know in a few hours.

3 minutes ago, ittaku said:

It should be a $1 release.

Yeah, I think so too. Unless they retranslated it or sth.

Edited December 9, 2019 by adamstan

[Nandemonai]

On 12/8/2019 at 9:24 AM, adamstan said:

I wonder if they fixed the translation... But I'm a bit afraid it's just low-cost port.

I will be very surprised if anything like that happens.  Really old games like that just aren't worth the money.

[adamstan]

Release delayed - new date: 2019-12-20.

[adamstan]

I just got e-mail notification from Steam that it finally got released. As for price, after conversion it looks like $9-10 release.

[adamstan]

Okay, I got it and checked it out quickly.

It seems to be almost direct re-release of 1999 Otaku Publishing version. Script files are byte-for-byte identical, so no translation fixes Initial splash-screen has been changed from "Otaku Publishing" to "Fakku", there is separate exe file for windowed mode, and issues with running on modern Windows systems have been fixed. Manual has been converted from *.hlp format to html, but contents are the same, so you can read, that in order to load the game you have to put CD in the drive etc etc

It's DRM-free - doesn't require Steam client to play.

There are some leftover saves - almost as if this release was based on some pirate version

Any price higher than the current would have been a rip-off, but for $9, it's passable.

Edited December 21, 2019 by adamstan

[ImperialScrolls]

Those PC-98 graphics are so stunning. I'm not sold on the plot, but the visuals alone sell this. 

[adamstan]

On 20.12.2019 at 4:45 PM, adamstan said:

and issues with running on modern Windows systems have been fixed.

I take that back. There is still random delay whenever MIDI track changes (due to changed MIDI handling in newer Windows versions).

So, contrary to what I thought at first, it's just repackage of the 20 years old release with changed title screen and manual in different format Shame...

The version floating on the net on abandonware sites was 1.2 while this is apparently 1.3, but they don't seem to be much different.

[ittaku]

What a shame. The script is so short it would have taken a competent translator only a few hours to have translate checked it. Sounds like a cheap cash cow for Fakku.

[adamstan]

2 hours ago, ittaku said:

Sounds like a cheap cash cow for Fakku.

Yes. I hoped it would be something more, but, sadly...

[Infernoplex]

What else would you have expected from FAKKU :face_palm:

[adamstan]

No idea, haven't dealt with them before.